We need more and more data centers to keep all existing applications running, especially since the advent of AI. This has sparked a lot of debate, partly because data centers take up a lot of space and consume a great deal of electricity. The European Union now appears to have found a solution to this problem. They want data centers to move into space!
Data centers in space—is that feasible?
The European Union allocated 2.1 million euros to a research project called Advanced Space Cloud for European Net Zero Emission and Data Sovereignty (ASCEND). The research lasted 16 months, and the EU concluded that placing data centers in space is “technically and economically feasible.” It would also have a positive impact on the environment. Outside the atmosphere, data centers benefit more from solar energy than they do here on Earth. This could therefore be a good solution to the pressure that data centers have placed on the environment and the power grid in Europe and the rest of the world. In fact, another study shows that by 2026, all data centers worldwide will require as much energy as the entire country of Japan. Furthermore, data centers generate significant CO2 emissions through the processing and storage of digital data.
How many data centers need to fit in the space?
ASCEND plans to begin launching 13 data centers into space in 2036, each with a capacity of 10 megawatts. Ultimately, the goal is to have approximately 1,300 data centers in space by 2050, generating a total of one gigawatt of energy. Coincidentally, this is the same year the European Union has stated it aims to become climate-neutral. In principle, it sounds like a great plan, but actually getting those data centers into space won’t be so easy. At the very least, this will require a lot of fuel, since each data center must be launched into space separately. For this reason, another research group is working on developing an environmentally friendly launch method, which would require only one-tenth of the fuel needed to launch the data centers.
Not everyone agrees
The EU’s plan seems well thought out, but many people are still critical of it. Even if the plan were to yield significant benefits, it would also cost millions in fuel to keep all those data centers orbiting the Earth. Another point of criticism is that it becomes more difficult in space to effectively protect the data centers from other, potentially hostile, countries. Despite these concerns, the plan seems to be gaining traction, as Microsoft is also collaborating with the space company Loft Orbital to research AI data centers in space!